Travelers' Intercom

My wife, Judy, and I were in Amsterdam in April ’05 after a tulip cruise (good value) aboard the Viking Pride of Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 877/668-4546 or www.viking rivercruises.com).

We usually arrive a day early in Europe to get over our jet lag, and this time we spent the night before we boarded at the Victoria Hotel (Damrak 1-5, 1012 LG Amsterdam, the Netherlands; tel. +31 [0] 20 623 4255, fax 31 [0] 625 2997 or visit www.parkplaza.com).

The public rooms were pleasant. Our spacious room on the third floor had a sitting area with love seat and coffee table...

In Aix, France, we followed the footsteps of Paul Cézanne, a native of that town, whose art was not much appreciated by its citizens during his lifetime. The Musée Granet has only a few small works by this renowned artist, though the rest of the collection is worth a visit.

Several years ago we saw the places where he was born, studied, married and died and also visited his atelier. From everywhere, we could see Sainte-Victoire, the stark mountain that dominates the landscape and so much of Cézanne’s work.

A highlight of our visit was the Cathedrale of St.-Sauveur, which...

At 9 a.m. on March 3, ’06, the Grigoriy Mikheev sounded her horn and we celebrated crossing the Antarctic Circle with Dutch liqueur. When choosing an Antarctic trip, this had been one of my goals.

The trip, Feb. 25-March 10, ’06, was perfect in many ways. With only 45 passengers on board, getting to know everyone was easy. Also, we never had to wait for Zodiacs and could enjoy 2-hour cruises among icebergs and ice floes. When not in the Drake straits, we had two landings a day.

Another plus was the international group. Only 10 of us were from the U.S.; the rest came from nine...